Behold: Lamu, Kenya

This is the second installment of Elyse DeFranco’s photography. She is a wildlife conservationist in Kenya, and chronicles her time there through the lens.

This collection focuses on Lamu, a town on the northern coast of Kenya quite near Somalia. It’s one of the oldest towns in Kenya. It is an island in an archipelago where cars are replaced by donkeys, walls are made of coral, and cats roam free and are believed to be the most direct descendants of the first domesticated cats of Egypt. It is also a rather endangered place, just as much as the wildlife in the first photo essay. The impending construction of a mega-port is expected to wreak havoc on the marine ecosystem there, as well as fundamentally alter the cultural life that has evolved in this town for over 1,000 years.

[divider]Guest Contributor[/divider]

Elyse DeFranco is a wildlife ecologist, photographer, and modern nomad of sorts, who has lived at research centers in the Kenya savannah and the Peruvian Amazon, as well as all over California.